John Woodburn (civil servant)

Sir John Woodburn KCSI (13 July 1843 – 21 November 1902) was an Indian Civil Servant, who later served as Lieutenant Governor of Bengal from 1898 to 1902.

[1] In April 1898, he was selected the successor of Sir Charles Stevens to the post of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, which position he retained till his death on 21 November 1902.

Woodburn worked hard for the development of jail and health administration of Bengal.

[4] In their obituary, The London Times described his years in Bengal the following way: Though perhaps not the intellectual equal of some others who have ruled in Bengal and the North-Western Provinces in recent days, he possessed in high degree the faculty of getting the very best out of all his subordinates, by whom he was greatly beloved.

A man of singular suavity of demeanor, he owned in full measure that delightful courtesy, often called old-fashioned, but never out of fashion, so long as its manifestation proceeds from a kind and generous heart.

Statue of Sir John Woodburn, which earlier stood at Dalhousie Square, Calcutta . Image of 1905
The Woodburn Block in P.G Hospital named after sir John Woodburn